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Economists are calling on Washington to create yet another stimulus package. Bush previously said, “No” to the idea, but something has changed his mind and now he wants one.

Well, I can’t imagine this being a good idea. Let’s just put our deficit even higher. Our government all ready owes everyone and their brother money. The bailout has cost every American citizen $3,100 and now, they want to pass a $150 billion bill. How is this going to help? Maybe, we just need the economy to suck for a while. It’ll come back, let’s just sit, wait and see what happens.

If anything should pass, it should be to give states enough money to cover unemployment. I heard that Wisconsin is running out of money. Also, it should be to help the 7.5% of Americans who are or will be unemployed find training in other fields.

Side note: My mother keeps insisting the economy is chugging along and everything is fine. One of the things she says proves this is our unemployment rate. Right now, it’s lower than 7.5% and it is lower than it was in the seventies, so things are okay. Well, I don’t know a lot about the seventies, but I know now if you’re unemployed and not on the unemployment roll, you’re not being counted. If you are still employed, but looking for a full time job, you’re counted as unemployed. If you took a job way below where you were before, you’re not being counted, but you’re not making your full pre-firing, pre-laid off wage. None of these are good for the economy. Another thing that isn’t good was the high gas prices.

Now, if they are going to send sums home to people, let’s send more than a lousy $600.00 per individual. Cheryl and I normally spend more than $1800 on Christmas between gifts, wrapping paper, Christmas Eve dinner and charitable donations, but not this year. We’re cutting way back this year. We haven’t been able to put money into our savings accounts like previous years due to various reasons — the least of which included the high gas prices — and we’re going to need to use the Christmas fund to pay our home taxes. Now, I’m not complaining, we both have jobs, things are just tighter than normal. We’ll get through it, just as many of Americans will.

But, the only way for the economy to bounce back is we need to put money into it. So, here’s my suggestion — partially stolen from Lewis Black — let’s build something, anything. Let’s put money into our intrastucture. Let’s improve our roads, let’s update our railroads. If we’re going to spend $150 billion dollars, let’s use it to create jobs. How about create an energy company, solely owned by the government, that will research fossil fuel alternatives? What about a company that will invent a better running car? Something, anything that will create jobs. And, let’s take a look at the hardest hit areas of the nations and put in training centers. Let’s train our unemployed and underemployed for different jobs. Not only would we employ people as trainers, but we’ll make our un and under employed citizens ready for the next jobs in their lives.

How can we pay for this?

Well, let’s stop substizing oil companies and large farms (not family farms, the big guys) and I’m sure there’s other things as well. Let’s rollback the tax breaks on the upper 1%. We all know taxes have to be raised, so let’s just get it over with. Hell, I’d chip in a little more in taxes to pay for something that benefits all.

But, it’ll never happen.

So, if they do pass the stimulus, I hope it’s enough money so we can buy some really nice Christmas presents.

God Bless

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I agree with your point on creating jobs, but those unemployed people you speak of would need to be trained to do those jobs which you suggest creating, which would cost even more money. For example, creating an energy company to do research would not require simple training; you would need to find hosts of well educated people with experience in this field. It’s not something you can easily train someone to do. The same principle operates for the creating of inventing a better car.

You’re right — it would require we spend money on education, which I did mention we’d need training centers. I don’t think anything is going to fix the economy overnight — it took longer than that to get us in this situation. Also, even training would create jobs — someone would have to teach the classes.

But, even knowing it would cost more, I’d rather not be sent a check the government wants me to spend and know that more jobs are or will be created with that money. That stimulates the economy and it has longer lasting effects.